Bad Neighbours - Everybody needs bad neighbours

Do you like Seth Rogen?  Basically, if you do, you’ll probably enjoy ‘Bad Neighbours’ as much as you’ve enjoyed the rest of his output.  If you don’t like him, then there’s not much here that will change your mind.  Seth Rogen basically plays the same Seth Rogen-like character he does in every other film (with the possible exception of ‘Observe and Report’).  This time, he’s married to Rose Bryne (yes, she’s waaay out of his league, but, for the film’s sake, we need to believe that she’d marry him) and they’re living happily with the baby daughter in the leafy suburbs until a bunch of college students turn next door into a ‘frat house.’

Naturally, this is going to cause some tension and this provides the basis of the film, i.e. how the students attempt to wind up Seth and Rose, while, in turn, they do their best to get rid of their unwelcome neighbours. 

That’s the story in a nutshell, but, what makes it very watchable, is the fact that the characters are pretty cool.  Seth and Rose work well together and the audience will naturally always root for them.  It would therefore be easy to turn the leader of the Frat house (Zac Efron) into a total villain.  Yes, he’s very full of himself and immature, but you can’t help but feel he is a little deeper than just a loud-mouthed college jock.  He does exhibit a sensitive side which gives the ‘war’ that ensues a little more balance.

Plus, it’s funny.  I just thought I’d mention that as I seem to see more and more ‘comedies’ coming out of Hollywood that simply don’t contain a single joke.  The humour is ‘adult’ in nature and so you’ll need to expect plenty of swearing and sex-gags.  It’s only an hour and a half long and that’s plenty enough.

So, if you’re okay with Seth Rogen’s style of comedy, plus you don’t mind the strong adult humour, you should definitely enjoy spending an hour and a half in Seth, Rose and Zac’s company.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that